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JPMorgan Off The Hook, Silver Above $29

Efforts to revive the JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE:JPM) silver manipulation case have failed — and much faster than lead counsel Christopher Lovell expected. The case was dismissed in December after Judge Robert Patterson deemed the complaint against JPMorgan too weak. The plaintiffs submitted a proposed amended complaint last month in an effort to keep the matter alive. Lovell expected the court's decision to take six months.

“None of the allegations added by plaintiffs in the proposed amended complaint cure the pleading deficiencies that led to the dismissal of the plaintiffs' first complaint for failure to state a claim,” Patterson wrote in his decision, according to Bloomberg. And with that, Patterson shut down the plaintiffs' attempt to pursue their case.

Two firms released silver forecasts that essentially call for silver to move in opposite directions. Societe Generale (EPA:GLE) predicts that silver will decline from $30 in the first quarter to $24 in Q4. Commerzbank (ETR:CBK), on the other hand, downgraded its forecast, but still projects that the silver price will increase from the current level. The firm expects silver to average $32 in the second quarter, $35 in Q3 and $36 in Q4.

What silver prices have done for most of the past week is close within a 20-cent range, just below the $29 mark. Tuesday, the metal ended the day a cent closer, at $28.91. Silver prices were left susceptible to the market's reaction to a highly anticipated statement that was scheduled to follow the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting.

Ultimately, the press conference held by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the decision to maintain current policies had little impact on silver. Some pressure crept into the market Wednesday afternoon and weighed on prices. But, before the close, silver recovered most of what it had lost. Wednesday, however, was the first day this week that the metal ended in the red. With losses of $0.90, its closing New York spot price was $28.82.